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Saturday, April 3, 2010

When I saw a shaped hard boiled egg for the first time, in a photo of a bento lunch, it blew me away! I couldn't get over it. I had no idea an egg could be molded that way. I thought it was fantastic and couldn't wait to try it out myself!First, you need some molds. There are some that are made specifically for this purpose. All the ones I've seen are packaged in sets of two.

Prepare hard boiled eggs as you like. My method:

place eggs in a single layer in a pan, cover with cold water

bring to boil over high heat, once boiling lower heat to low

let eggs continue to simmer for 2 minutes

turn off heat and leave the pan covered for 12 minutes

Once the eggs are done cooking, I remove from hot water and let cool for just a few minutes. To make it tolerable to handle I rinse under cool water for a few seconds and then peel quickly. This part can sting! The first few pieces of shell coming off will also release hot steam - be careful!

helpful hint: older eggs are MUCH easier to peel and will come off in large strips, rather than itty bitty pieces that cling to the inner egg tearing out chunks of the egg. The eggs I used here I had in the fridge for a week before using and they peeled perfectly.

It is important to do this when the egg is hot because it malleable when hot. A malleable egg when squeezed into the mold will take on the shape of the mold. When you have the egg peeled place it in the mold and snap it closed.

When you have your eggs all encased in the molds it is time to cool them down. You can just place them in the fridge if you prefer, but I like to cool them quickly. So I plop them into an ice water bath.

When they are cool you can release them from the molds.

Marvel in the novelty of a shaped egg!

The same process can be used to make shaped eggs using ice cream sandwich molds, but those come in two pieces, without a hinge and clasp, and you will need to secure the pieces together using a thick rubber band to keep the mold closed.

JList carries a wide selection of boiled egg shapers, including a lot of characters like Winnie the Pooh, Stitch and Hello Kitty. :)

Thanks for the hint on older eggs. I was cursing my eggs when I made them this week. The hot egg and tiny pieces of shell were not a good combo. And I had no idea you could use ice cream molds. That opens up all new worlds.

Melissa, I've mentioned I'm learning about and packing bentos for myself. One might think much of this "kid's stuff" wouldn't apply to me. Think again. I think the idea of making hard boiled eggs into shapes is so fun, and I can't wait to try it for myself! What a way to brighten my day, and stay young. Thanks. :)

Taka, for this set - the car and fish, and for the bear and rabbit set - Large eggs work perfectly.

There is another egg mold set that is a star and heart and those need Extra Large eggs to have turn out well.

We now buy our eggs from a local person who keep free-range chickens on their property and the egg sizes are all over the place. I've had a tricky time lately getting my molds to turn out nicely since they aren't sized for me. ;-)

I sorta have this crush on Japanese products (have you tried Hi-Chew?). Ive seen these egg molds around but had NO idea how they worked, so I ignored them. Now I know, thank you! We love eating boiled eggs, now I have an excuse to buy some more Hello Kitty :)

HiI have just discovered your blog and woaw! Thanks for all inspirations, but the most important thanks for this post. Why? Because I bought this mould a long time ago and I never understood how to use them! The instruction in japanese wasn't clear... So each time I tried it didn't work.Now I think I can do it! Let's try tomorrow for my daughter lunch!!! Thanks again.Celine

Hi Dene. I'm not aware of any shops in the UK specifically, but you might try Amazon (there is a UK divisision I think?), ebay, or the japan online store called Jbox. I used to order from Jbox frequently for bento items... shipping can be slow (since it's coming from Japan), but I never had a problem ordering through them. They definitely ship internationally. The link to their egg molds: http://bit.ly/VKEhxt Egg Molds at Jbox